Leadership Ideas, Information and News

Friday, July 19, 2013

Amputee Leads Marines at Infantry School

MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP PENDLETON, Calif., July 18, 2013 – Marine
Corps infantry instructors are expected to be physically fit, mentally
strong and have a vast amount of knowledge in their occupational field.

Marine
Corps Gunnery Sgt. Gabriel Guest continues to mentor and lead Marines
after having his left leg amputated. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl.
Joseph Scanlan(Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available.

Gunnery Sgt. Gabriel Guest, the chief instructor of the Advanced
Machine Gunners course at the School of Infantry-West’s Advanced
Infantry Training Battalion here, is no exception.

"When I joined
the Marine Corps, I chose to join the infantry because I like action
and being in the thick of things, and because of the challenge it
presents," said Guest, a native of Spokane, Wash. "The infantry is very
dynamic, because there are a lot of different aspects you can master
like weapons or tactics."

Guest deployed four times, three times to combat zones, in his career.

His first deployment was with 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, in
support of the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit, in response to the
October 2000 attack on the USS Cole in a Yemeni harbor. His second and
third deployments were to Iraq with 1st Battalion, 1st Marines, and his
fourth and final deployment was to Afghanistan with 2nd Battalion, 7th
Marines.
Guest experienced his first enemy contact while deployed to Afghanistan during 2008.

"After our first engagement in Now Zad, we had to fight our way out of
the city," he recalled. "It was like that every day for the next five
months. Most engagements lasted anywhere from five to 15 hours long. I
never wanted to see my guys get hurt or wounded, but I still carry those
memories with me today."

After five months of constant enemy
contact, Guest's vehicle drove over a pressure plate improvised
explosive device, ejecting him from the vehicle and causing three
different compound fractures in his left leg.

"After the dust
cleared, I started to look around, and I noticed my boot was next to my
face," Guest said. "I thought I was dizzy and was hallucinating until I
looked down and saw the blood on my pant leg and saw the bones sticking
out."

Guest was first sent to the medical facility at Bagram
Airfield, and then to many other hospitals for more than 25 surgeries.
During physical therapy, Guest said, he realized his leg wasn't going to
heal as well as he had hoped it would, so he went through further
surgeries.

Later, he was offered the chance to work at the School of Infantry as a machine gun instructor and seized the opportunity.

"I was the chief instructor running courses, and I was doing perfectly
fine," Guest said. "I was working with weapons and doing regular
infantry stuff again when I started to feel ill and my leg started
hurting."

His leg became continuously infected because of
constant physical training, and he was left with only three options:
fusing his leg straight, allowing no bending in the knee; having a total
knee replacement with risk of future infections that could be fatal; or
having the leg amputated. He chose amputation, and underwent the
operation on Oct. 10, 2012.

"Choosing to have my leg amputated
was one of the hardest decisions I've had to make in my life, because it
is losing part of myself," Guest said.

Guest took only a week
off work for his amputation because of his dedication. He continued to
recover while he resumed teaching Marines.

"The Marine Corps made
the Expanded Permanent Limited Duty Program for Marines like me who are
wounded warriors and want to continue being Marines," Guest said. "I
hope that I'm showing the commandant the program was a great choice,
because I don't know what I would do with myself if I wasn't a Marine."

Through the EPLD program, Marines who experienced significant combat
injuries that normally would restrict them from continuing their service
are allowed to continue their careers by mentoring Marines through
their leadership skills sharpened by combat experience.

Guest has taught multiple courses and is back to full duty, aside from certain physical training events, since his amputation.

"It's awesome to see him still have the same opportunities everyone
else gets, because he earned every bit of it," said Marine Corps Cpl.
Sean O'Malley, an instructor at the Advanced Machine Gunners course.
"I've never seen him not willing to do something for any of his Marines.
He puts so much into being an instructor, because he knows the Marines
he is teaching may find themselves in the same combat situations he
found himself in years ago. He wants each and every one of them to come
back alive."

Guest said one of the reasons he loves his job is
that he’s able to show Marines the reality of combat with the loss of
his leg.

"I have had friends who were amputees who started
drinking more and became depressed after losing their limbs, but Gunnery
Sergeant Guest is not one of those people," said O'Malley, a Chicago
native. "He is more active than a lot of people who have both of their
legs."

Guest still swims and physically trains as he did before
the amputation. He plans to return to an infantry battalion and continue
to deploy overseas after finishing his time as an instructor.

"Once someone loses a limb from their body, it makes them appreciate the
little things in life," he said. "It makes them understand how limited
humans are, but it also lets them know how endless the potential is."